UNCANNY X-MEN #240: Strike the Match

Things heat up between the X-Men and the Marauders, and Maddie holds a candle!

Originally Published January 1989

We begin at New York's famed Rainbow Room, atop the RCA Building in Rockefeller Centre. There, Madelyne and Alex enjoy a slow dance to some old Glenn Miller tunes, in an otherwise empty club.

Is it too obvious to say sparks are flying?

That is, empty except for the presence of some Ghost Hunters, who bicker noisily about the readings from their equipment. While Dr. Snodgrass asserts what her senses tell her -- that the Empire State Building is growing and that paranormal activity is, actually, all around -- her colleague Dr. Martin disagrees on the grounds of "That's kooky-talk!" 

Soon, the Maitre d' is chastising the bickering scientists for their breach of decorum in disturbing the guests, and ushering them to a tasty exit.

Wait, shouldn't that be a "hasty" exit?

Soon, however, it's time to go as Gateway -- the one-man intercontinental express -- teleports the young canoodlers back to the Outback. However, no sooner do they arrive than Madelyne is off again, on some mysterious errand. That takes her to the cemetery at Bard College. There, dressed in her new Gothic Underboobkini, she sees flashes of her wedding to Scott Summers. In retrospect, she takes issues with the veracity of some of his statements there.

And as she vandalizes the empty gravesite of Jean Grey, she runs into two of the people she'd least like to meet: Jean's parents, John and Elaine Grey.

Madelyne is there for a meeting with her Demon pal N'astirh, who -- and this is a certified demon we're talking about here, so you know it's business -- is a little weirded out by how strongly Madelyne is taking to the role of Goblin Queen.

In fact, we see, she has transformed the Greys into her own personal demon pets.

But N'astirh is a monster of his word, and he promised Madelyne her baby, and her babe she will have. All they need to do is zip out across the country...

Back in the Land Down Under, Rogue is having a little fun with Longshot, which has Dazzler most displeased.

 

They end up having a scuffle that winds up interrupting Colossus' sketch session with Betsy as his model.

All of which only serves to get Longshot upset because he's nobody's property to be fought over. Not really big on exclusivity, is our guy Longshot. Monogamy's the only thing that gets him mad.

Meanwhile down below, Alex has been looking at Maddie's computers and realizes that they've finally found the Marauders -- they've relocated to the old Morlock Alley! Storm and Wolverine are downright giddy at the prospect of bringing them another fight.

Mean-erwhile, N'astirh has brought Madelyne to, of all places, Nebraska, to a mysterious and creepy orphanage. There she sees a kind of mechanical cocoon and sees a vision of a child in it. Not her own -- but herself!

In New York we see the Marauders hard at work loading their stuff into the Morlock Alley. It seems to be taking a while, perhaps because Sabretooth has a giant lava lamp collection.

So, when Blockbuster ventures down a dark corridor alone...

The fight is on, and while the Marauders are mildly surprised to see the X-Men alive and kicking, they're no more surprised than we are to see members like Riptide and Prism, who should also be pushing up the daisies. 

The X-Men are able to hold their own against the Marauders, using some of their new tricks like Psylocke tricking Scrambler into thinking she and Arclight have switched places.

When Malice and Storm get into a standoff, Havok has an opening to use his power on the undefended Marauder. Unfortunately, she's still inhabiting the body of the woman he loves -- and he still seems to have a whole hangup about this murdering your enemies thing, so naturally, he hesitates. 

Which gives Malice the opening to use Colossus as a battering ram to get the Marauders an escape.

Unfortunately it looks like they've found themselves jumping out of the frying pan and into the... well, it's hot, let me tell you that much.

Back in Nebraska, Madelyne is sick of games and demands N'astirh tells her why, exactly, they've come to this place. But it turns out that isn't N'astirh's story to tell -- someone else is here with the info we require.

Gasp!